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UPI
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- UPI
Scripps National Spelling Bee finals air Thursday night
Dev Shah, 14, from Largo, Fla., won the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee by spelling the word "psammophile" on June 1, 2023. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo May 29 (UPI) -- The final round of the prestigious Scripps National Spelling Bee gets underway at 8 p.m. EDT on Thursday with nine contestants vying for the title. The event pits 243 spelling champions from every state and the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands to determine which one earns the Scripps Cup during the spelling competition's 100th year. Contestants from Canada, the Bahamas, Germany, Ghana, Kuwait and Nigeria also compete for the title. National Spelling Bee contestants must not be older than age 15 or have progressed beyond the eighth grade. They advance to the National Spelling Bee by competing in regional competitions. This year's nine finalists are between the ages of 11 and 14. Last year's runner-up, Faizan Zaki, 13, from Allen, Texas, is among the nine finalists. He lost in a tie-breaking spell-off to last year's winner, Bruhat Soma. The winner receives a custom trophy, $52,500 in cash prizes, a commemorative medal and a one-year subscription to reference works from Merriam-Webster and the Encyclopedia Britannica. All finalists receive at least $2,000, with the second-place finisher winning $25,000. More than one person can tie for the championship. When two or more contestants tie for the title, each receives the $50,000 grand prize from the National Spelling Bee. The finals will be aired live on ion, which is available via streaming and many television cable and satellite subscription services. This year's National Spelling Bee began on Tuesday, when 60 contestants were eliminated during a preliminary spelling and vocabulary round. Another 84 spellers were eliminated later on Tuesday after completing a written spelling and vocabulary test. Three quarterfinal rounds held narrowed the field to 57 semifinalists on Wednesday, and four semifinal rounds produced the nine contestants who qualified for Thursday night's final round. The Scripps National Spelling Bee has been held annually since 1925, when nine students competed for the title. It was suspended from 1943 to 1945 due to World War II and in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The competition has created a historical archive to celebrate the spelling competition's centennial year. This year's competition is its 97th and is being held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., which has hosted the event since 2011.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Marco Island girl will compete in 97th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee
The Scripps National Spelling Bee has resulted in a Florida winner twice in a row: Largo eighth-grader Dev Shah in 2023 and St. Petersburg 12-year-old Bruhat Soma in 2024. Will the Sunshine State pull off a threepeat this year? There will be 12 contestants from Florida among the 243 spellers in the 97th National Spelling Bee. Two contestants have a special tie to Southwest Florida, including one Marco Island student. Here's what to know about this year's spelling bee. "Bee Week" begins with preliminaries at 8 a.m. ET on Tuesday, May 27. The quarterfinals are the next day, Wednesday, May 28, and the semifinals happen that same evening. The competition wraps up with the finals on Thursday, May 29. Preliminaries, May 27: Will be streamed on Scripps News networks Bounce XL, Grit Xtra, and Laff More, and at from 8 a.m. to 4:40 p.m. ET Quarterfinals, May 28: Will be streamed on Bounce XL, Grit Xtra, and Laff More, and at from 8 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. ET Semifinals, May 28: Will stream live on Bounce XL, Grit Xtra, and Laff More, and at from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. ET and air 8-10 p.m. on ION Finals, May 29: Will air live from 8-10 p.m. on ION Encore presentations of the semifinals will air on Scripps News on Thursday, May 29, from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m., and of the finals on May 29 from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. The Scripps Networks can be found free over-the-air as well as on cable, satellite and streaming platforms. You can enter your ZIP code at for instructions on how to watch the Bee in a specific area. There's two contestants from Southwest Florida this year: 14-year-old Nicasio David from Fort Myers and 13-year-old Sophia Jolie Schoenrock from Marco Island. The Collier County Public School District is sponsoring 13-year-old Schoenrock, who attends Marco Island Charter Middle School. According to her official National Spelling Bee biography, Schoenrock loves reading and playing the clarinet. In her free time, she plays catcher and second baseman with the Naples Select Softball Team. Her favorite movie is "Ocean's 11" and her favorite subject in school is algebra. Schoenrock was born in Germany and moved to the United States when she was six years old. She didn't speak any English at the time. Now, seven years later, she's competing in the nation's 97th Spelling Bee. Hadi Abbasi, 12, Franklin Academy Pembroke Pines, Miami Louis Avetis, 12, Discovery Middle School, Orlando Nicasio David, 14, Paul Laurence Dunbar Middle School, Fort Myers Cecily Dean, 13, Leon County Home Schoolers, Tallahassee Diego Gallegos, 11, Lakemont Elementary School, Orlando Elias Benjamin Javelona, 13, of Howard Middle School, Belleview Vlada Kozhevnikova, 12, Pinellas Academy of Math & Science, St. Petersburg Moksh Maru, 10, Wilson Elementary School, Sanford Nikhail Sha, 13, Palmetto Middle School, Miami Sophia Jolie Schoenrock, 13, Marco Island Charter Middle School, Naples Sree Vidya Siliveri, 14, Alice B. Landrum Middle School, Jacksonville Aiden Westover, 14, Odyssey Middle School, Orlando A Florida contestant has won four times in the history of the national spelling bee, according to Scripps data: Soma in 2024 on his second try, Shah in 2023 on the third try, Nupur Lala of Tampa in 1999, who won in her second appearance, and Wendy Guoy of West Palm Beach in 1996, who won after four tries. The state with the most wins is Texas, with 16. Twenty-one states have never had a national spelling bee champion. Starting in September, spelling bees in classrooms work up to regional spelling bees in February and March to determine national competitors. Spellers may not be older than 15 or past the eighth grade, and former champions may not compete again. During the spelling bee, kids compete in: Spelling rounds, where they have 90 seconds to correctly spell a word after it has been pronounced. They may ask for definitions, usage, language, the part of speech, alternate pronunciation or just to hear it again, but not in the last 15 seconds. Vocabulary rounds: Originally part of a written test, this was made an onstage element in 2021. Spellers are given 30 seconds to answer a multiple-choice question about the definition of a word. Written test: Spellers who advance through rounds 1 and 2 will take round 3 written test on spelling and vocabulary. Scores determine who moves on to the quarterfinals. Spell-offs: Introduced in 2021, officials may call for a spell-off to conclude the finals. Spellers have 90 seconds to spell as many words as possible while their competition cannot hear. Each speller gets the same words in the same order. Last year, Florida's Bruhat Soma set a record at 29 words. The champion gets $50,000 cash, a commemorative medal, and the Scripps Cup championship trophy. They will also receive $2,500 cash and a reference library from Merriam-Webster, $400 of reference works and a 3-year online membership from Encyclopædia Britannica, the school of their choice gets $1,000 in Scholastic credit, and their school and regional partner get an engraved plaque. Finalists get a commemorative medal and: Eliminated from first round of finals to 7th place: $2,000 6th place: $2,500 5th place: $5,000 4th place: $10,000 3rd place: $15,000 2nd place: $25,000 Semifinalists get a commemorative medal and a $500 gift card, and quarterfinalists get a commemorative pin and a $100 gift card. All competitors receive a prize package, subscriptions to Merriam-Webster, Britannica Online Premium, and the Regional Champions' School, and a 2025 U.S. Mint proof set. This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: How to watch Marco Island girl compete in 2025 National Spelling Bee
